Morning Read: ‘It’s Finally a Mayoral Race’

Who won last night’s NY1 mayoral debate? According to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio‘s campaign, they had the advantage. To wit, they sent out a statement entitled, “HOW BILL DE BLASIO WON THE FIRST TELEVISED DEBATE.” His spokesman reasoned, “Bill de Blasio emerged again tonight as the clear choice for progressives who don’t want four more years of the same Bloomberg policies.”

“Have you offered to reimburse donors for their contributions to his campaign?” a prosecutor asked Sharon Lee, an aide to Comptroller John Liu, in court yesterday. She replied, “Yes.” She was also “asked whether she had solicited contributions from anyone, and she replied affirmatively, citing friends and relatives.” Her lawyer said she had not personally reimbursed anyone.

Perennial candidate Jimmy McMillan is back, apparently. “It’s finally a mayoral race,” The New York Timesreported last night, noting the snazzy rap video that launched his campaign. “Jimmy McMillan, bewhiskered avatar of the Rent Is Too Damn High party, entered the scrum on Wednesday with the ‘Rent Is Too Damn High’ anthem, a song and video.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel, a writer for The Nation, thinks Governor Andrew Cuomo has an ulterior motive in his push to end the Wilson-Pakula process. “For reasons both similar and different, the governor and the real estate/Wall Street/low-wage employer wings of the Democratic Party in New York would like to see the Working Families Party disappear,” she claims.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey managed to draw “a couple hundred” to a fund-raiser for Reshma Saujani‘s public advocate campaign last night, an event her husband labeled a “defining moment” for New York tech. Mr. Dorsey introduced his remarks by stating, “I am a man of few characters, so I’m going to keep this very, very brief.”

And here is part of Mr. Weiner’s interview with Dominic Carter last night: